Sunday, August 31, 2014

Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster

Over the weekend Eric Beetner put a bug up my butt about the music video for Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster by Thee Oh Sees siting it as one of the better crime films he'd seen lately - which echoed an experience I had a couple weeks back when I stumbled upon the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' Jubilee Street video. It had a great, dark little narrative that complimented the song and used the music to create a piece of art that deserves to stand on its own.

So, here I go, bug up my butt on a strange variation of the Narrative Music series - the Narrative Music Video edition... I'm sure there are a million of these I'm not even aware of (I haven't watched music videos much in the last twenty years), so feel free to recommend more to me.

Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster - The Oh Sees - I dig that it's essentially a silent film with a soundtrack. Song's cool, but the film might work just as well with a calliope behind it.

Jubilee Street - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition), no less and starring Ray Winstone in his best role since Sexy Beast. This one is tied to song much closer, but damn...

Duquesne Whistle - Bob Dylan - Stick with it. It starts off heavy on a saccharine-y, whimsical note, that is turned sour by some pretty sick violence - really, that Joel Edgerton bat sequence is fucking intense... Another basically silent film with Senor Dylan and entourage stepping through the frame, but jeez, stuck with me. Directed by Nash Edgerton (The Square).

Bad Motherfucker - Biting Elbows - suggested by Matthew McBride. I remember catching this one a while back, but confess that I completely missed that it was a music video - I was so caught up in the action film chops... Good shit. Good rec, Matt.